


The Refuge, Part 2: Line in the sand

by justinsbuzz



Series: Homeworld Aftermath Arc [9]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, Family Drama, Gen, Line in the Sand, Mild Language, Priyanka unloads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26346076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justinsbuzz/pseuds/justinsbuzz
Summary: As Steven deals with issues inside of the room, a fight begins to brew among everyone when Priyanka delivers some disturbing news. Uncomfortable truths are told.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Doug Maheswaran/Priyanka Maheswaran
Series: Homeworld Aftermath Arc [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1122024
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	The Refuge, Part 2: Line in the sand

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: mild-to-moderate language ahead. Like, Priyanka is in this and she is NOT happy. If you thought 'Nightmare Hospital', or 'Fusion Cuisine' was bad, then this is her in mama bear mode cranked up to 11, and the nob yanked out of the machine. Drama and angst abound.

The Refuge Part 2

The door shut a brief moment before Garnet made it to the doorway. Frustrated, she slammed her fist hard against the wall. A hit that hard on almost any other surface in the house would cause at least a major crack. The wall, on the other hand, was pristine.

“DAMN HIM!” Garnet snarled. “Talking back. Walking away when someone is talking to him.”

“He’s never been like this before. Maybe the sapphires might be right.” Pearl pondered out loud before Connie cleared her throat.

“Hi. Um. So. What the heck happened?!” Connie asked loudly. “I woke up, took a shower, made eggs and some coffee, preparing for another day of meaningless studying, and then Amethyst, Spinel, and Obsidian carted Steven’s seemingly lifeless body into the bathroom, without telling me what’s going on. So maybe you two can saw a few things? Fill in the blanks?”

“This has nothing to do with you, Connie.” Pearl snapped, looking frustrated.

“I’m actually going to side with Connie on this, guys.” Doug said.

“Yeah! What happened to my son?!” Greg asked. “I have a right to know!”

“It’s nothing for you to-” Garnet was attempting to reply before being interrupted.

“DON’T GIVE ME THAT!” Greg snapped at Garnet, causing her to be slightly taken aback. “It has everything to do with me! I’m not just some pathetic human being for you to look down on. I might not have been around much recently, but I’m here now, and I am very worried about this!”

Doug’s looked impressed at Greg, who was really stepping up to the plate.

“I do believe we’re owed an explanation.” Doug said, backing Greg up.

“If you don’t tell them.” Jasper spoke in a low tone. “Then I will.”

“Well, I would like to hear why Steven was in the garden in the first place.” Pearl shrugged, calling Jasper out on her threat. Jasper slowly shook her head, sighed, and began to speak.

“Right… so. Steven… kind of… sort of… um… hmm…” Jasper struggled to find the words before Amethyst took the reigns.

“We, as in Spinel and I, tried to get Steven out of Roses garden when those monsters over there started hunting him down.” Amethyst took over for explaining things for Jasper who looked relieved. “We were almost out when Steven heard Pearl say something about how Steven’s feelings don’t matter. Then he kind of went all… pink. Like, REALLY pink. Hovering above the ground, roaring, and really wanted to fight them.”

“Garnet fired off a couple of those rocket fists things to take him down, but he deflected them back.” Spinel added. “It was… kind of cool.”

“You… you fired fist rockets at my son whose feelings you said didn’t matter?” Greg asked Garnet quietly, with one of his eyes twitching. Doug patted him on the shoulder while he breathed deeply and exhaled. “Continue.”

“Well, Me and Spinel tried to calm him down, and pull him back. It nearly wasn’t enough until the Lapis’ came in with healing water and just got him to relax.” Amethyst spoke. “Well, really relaxed. We brought him back here, plopped him in a tub full of diamond essence to heal him.”

“Yeah… I’ve never seen anyone but Pink Diamond pull something like that off. Kind of scary.” Spinel added. “But the fact that he’s walking around, not pink, and relatively calm seems like he’s… kind of okay?”

“’Kind of okay’?” Connie asked, looking frustrated. “After everything, ‘kind of okay’ doesn’t really say much. Not since it sounds like that Steven’s gem had an outburst, brought on by Garnet and Pearls subconscious slip of the tongue! But it does point out that his gem is influenced by his emotions.”

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s his emotions or his gem that’s causing these outbursts, he should know better.” Garnet stated “He’s a gem, he’s supposed to be better than this. Instead, he’s letting his emotions get the better of him.”

“Yeah, cause you’re the foremost expert on emotions there, Garnet.” Amethyst mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Garnet asked. “Who asked you?”

“When does anyone ask me for my opinion? Surely not you two.” Amethyst retorted. “’He’s a gem’? ‘he’s letting his emotions get the better of him’? Really, Garnet? Have you ever met a teenager before? Especially one like Steven?”

“I can honestly state that I have met teenagers,” Lapis spoke. “And, yeah, he’s got a fair amount of emotional issues like the rest of them.”

Connie could only shrug, being the only other human teenager in the house.

“Steven’s been going through a hard-enough time as it is without you two bagging on him about having to have control over something that no one really understands!” Amethyst spoke sternly. “This is something that I think, for once, not even you two can wrap your brains around.”

“We know more than you, Amethyst!” Pearl snapped.

“Oh? Pop quiz: What is the main theme of Steven’s recurring nightmare?” Spinel asked Pearl.

“It’s… the one where he forgot to wear pants to class?” Pearl replied. Connie’s, Amethyst’s, Spinel’s, and Lapis’ collectively dropped at the sound of what may be the stupidest thing that were to come out of Pearls mouth. “Oh like any of you know!”

Connie thrusted her hand into the air, causing Spinel to nod in acknowledgement to Connie.

“When not on sleeping medication, it’s mostly about Pink Diamond, Rose Quartz, and another version of Steven trying to either catch him, or just straight up kill him.” Connie replied with half of the answer. “And when he’s taken the sleep medication, he only sleeps for 3 hours max before being woken up with sharp, searing pain from his gem. In which the only way he can try to get back to sleep is if someone talks to him, which I had been doing for about a week! How’s your week going there, Pearl?”

Pearl couldn’t look any more annoyed, or angry. Being attacked like this has nearly driven her to the breaking point.

“I don’t think that there's anyone on this planet who can understand what’s going on with him and his gem!” Pearl snarled.

“I could give I a shot.” Came a voice coming from the entrance to the house. Priyanka walked in, with Peridot in tow, carrying what looked almost like a rolled-up doormat. As she walked over to the dining table, she unfurled it, revealing something that looked like a flexible monitor.

“What’s that thi-” Lapis was about to ask a question, before getting her answer when Priyanka pressed a few buttons on the side, which caused a holographic 3D image of a normal skeletal system.

“A project that Priyanka and I had been cooking up for a while now. A portable, flexible, holoprojector.” Peridot answered the question Lapis didn’t get the chance to fully ask. “Not going to lie, as much as I love growing plants and such, I missed tinkering with technology.”

“It’s something that, on any other occasion, I would-” Priyanka began to gush before Peridot cleared her throat, causing Priyanka to roll her eyes. “That WE would gush about if it weren’t for the fact that we ALL need to have a chat about Steven’s wellbeing.”

“All of us?” Doug asked.

“We’re basically Steven’s family here. Even if some of us had nothing to do with what he’s been through, we all need to understand what he’s going through.” Priyanka answered. “Now I know this is breaching certain Doctor-Patient confidentiality protocols, but this is the one time I’m willing to make an exception. Peridot, do the thing.”

Peridot looked confused.

“What thing?” Peridot asked.

“The thing. With the projector.” Priyanka answered. “Remember you said you wanted to help? you work the projector, I talk?”

“Oh, right.” Peridot replied before pressing a few buttons on the side, beginning to show holoprojections of skeletons and shadowy outlines of gems.

“Now as you can see, these are samples of skeletal structures from an array of people who will go nameless. Some human, some gems.” Priyanka spoke as Peridot slowly went through the small lineup of gems and humans. “Gems, as we all know, are mainly holoprojections of light entering their gem, creating something known as ‘hard light’, and humans are basically bones, muscles, organs, skin tissues. With that in mind, Peridot, open Steven’s file.”

Peridot, tapping on a holo-keyboard that appeared towards one corner of the screen. a projection of a folder popped up, opened, and a few images fell out onto the table, causing an image of a strange skeletal structure to pop out of the table. it was almost a mishmash of an x-ray of a human, and of a gem. But the one thing that stood out was what his bones looked like. They seem to be slightly covered in pink strands laced throughout the skeleton. But one look at the gem and they knew what they were looking at; Steven’s X-rays.

“What’s that?” Pearl asked, walking up close to the hologram. “Wait… the gem…”

“Yeah. That would be Steven’s X-ray.” Priyanka spoke, trying her best not to sound annoyed. “And unlike how you’ve been paying attention to what he’s struggling with, maybe you could pay attention to why his bones have glowing pink veins.”

“Wait. I thought you said the machine was broken?” Connie asked. “It was one of the reasons why you’ve been missing out on dinner so much.

“And I’m really sorry about that, hon. But this…” Priyanka apologized, while looking intensely at the hologram.

“Yeah. I’d think the machine would be broken too.” Connie replied, placing her finger on the holographic circle at the base of the skeleton to turn it.

“So, if the machine isn’t broken, then… what is this? What’s up with his bones?” Amethyst asked, sounding worried.

“Well, for a while, I had an idea of what it was. I really didn’t want to believe it, but I poured through every other diagnosis that could match something like this. But… Peridot, pull up Greg file. X-ray. Left tibia. Hairline fracture.” Priyanka asked Peridot.

Peridot went back into another folder and accessed another holographic image of a man’s leg, putting it side by side with Steven’s full body scan. Priyanka walked over to the holographic leg, and expanded the image so that the leg was twice as tall as Steven’s image. Faintly, something could be seen on the front part of the leg. A slight sliver of pink.

“Wait…That pink area…” Greg began to speak, squinting at the image for a moment before his eyebrows shot nearly off his forehead. “That’s where my leg got fractured in that fight with…”

Greg trailed off, not wanting to, he had accidentally glimpsed at Lapis, who was looking intently at the leg before noticing Greg.

“Yeah… sorry about that… again…” Lapis said, rubbing one of her shoulders and feeling embarrassed.

“But wait, that was a hairline fracture. Shouldn’t it… wait…” Greg fell backwards into the couch, right next to Doug, who looked concerned. “Steven’s… bones…”

“Honestly, the only other time I’ve seen so many fractures on a person’s skeletal structure, it belonged to a stuntman from Kansas. Or, at least, it came from the cadaver back in med school.” Priyanka said bluntly. “But even then, that stuntman only had a quarter of the amount of broken bones in comparison to Steven, and only some of them being life-threatening.”

The room grew quiet. No one dared to speak, especially since Priyanka glared at the X-ray scans with clenched fist. It seems as though the only person who could get away with doing anything was Jasper, who slowly walked towards the hologram. She stared at one particular part of the hologram. Steven’s head, and the multiple cracks around Steven’s left eye. Her large fingers barely touched his skull before she pulled back, and began to rub her forehead. Tears began to well up in her eyes.

“That one area seems to be the place that suffered the most damaged.” Priyanka said quietly “If it weren’t for his gem, his healing powers… the best case scenario would have been moderate brain trauma, and a missing eye. But that would have been a billion-to-one odds.”

“What would have happened… realistically?” Jasper asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

“To put it into terms from a gem’s perspective?” Priyanka began to answer before taking a deep breath. “Total gem pulverization. Turned to dust. Shattered to a million pieces. It would have been instant. Depending on how it happened.”

Silence fell over them all. Pearl and Garnet looked straight at Jasper with anger in their eyes. Amethyst, on the other hand, could easily see the look on her face, as she, herself, began to shed a couple of tears. A muted woosh was heard when Jasper produced her helmet, in which she gently rested it on the table.

“It… it was me. I didn’t know. I’m… I’m sorry.” Jasper said as she began to sob. “I’m so sorry, Steven…”

Jasper walked out the front door at a quick pace, attempting to wipe the tears out of her eyes.

“Jasper…” Amethyst quietly spoke as she watched as Jasper made her way to the shore line.

“We never should have cured her.” Garnet grumbled.

“And I should have never expected you two to be responsible guardians!” Priyanka growled at Garnet and Pearl. “I counted well over 7 different ways Steven could have died, 5 ways he could have been left paralyzed, both paraplegic and quadriplegic, 6 broken ribs that could have easily puncture a lung like it was a fucking needle to a damn party balloon! 4 broken bones that look so severe, it would have warranted amputation! Oh, and fun little fact, the femur is one of the strongest bones in the human skeletal system. NOT a fun fact, HE BROKE THOSE IN 5 FUCKING PLACES!”

Garnet’s face turned to stone, while Pearl's face showed one of a gem at the mercy of an enraged diamond. And for a brief moment, Pearl slightly moved her hand very slowly towards her gem as though she was about to pull out something. The only thing that stopped her was a brief glimpse of Greg, who was silently sobbing.

“It… it was my fault.” Greg whispered through the tears. “I… they told me he would be safe with them. They said that his powers would be too much for me to deal with. That he was more gem than human. He nearly died. Because of me. Because I trusted the people Rose trusted the most.”

“Bud…” Doug said quietly, patting his back before darting his eyes at Pearl and Garnet.

“This wasn’t your fault, Greg.” Priyanka spoke as Connie walked over from the kitchen table to give Greg a hug.

“So… what? You’re going to blame US now?” Pearl spoke in a shrill voice, her eyes showing a tear or two. “We did everything we could to keep him safe!”

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” Amethyst screeched over her tears. “You idiots did everything BUT keep him safe!”

“Oh, don’t you dare think you’re more responsible than we are!” Garnet barked at Amethyst.

“Well I’m doing that right now! You two did everything in your power to groom Steven to be the next Rose Quartz! The next Pink Diamond! You two reckless morons made Steven think he was immortal! Like he was his mom! NEWSFLASH BITCHES! He’s not!”

Amethyst slammed her fist down on the table hard enough to break two of the table legs, causing Peridot, Lapis, and Spinel to move towards the staircase.

“W-we know that!” Pearl stuttered, taken aback by Amethysts outburst.

“Oh, do you, now?” Amethyst fired back. “Cause if that x-ray is any indication of how much of a human being Steven really was to you, you failed big time!”

“He had a shield. He could protect himself.” Garnet spoke through gritted teeth.

“He didn’t know how to properly use it for 2 years! But the moment he was able to actually pull it out, you ripped off the training wheels and threw him down a hill, thinking ‘oh, he’ll be fine. I saw the future. He’ll live’. Well garnet, did that 3rd eye of your see THIS HAPPENING?!” Amethyst roared as she pointed at the holographic image that was still active after the mat fell to the floor. “Or did it just happen to see whatever was the easiest thing for you to deal with? Because while you two were off pretending that Steven was the next Rose Quartz, I was the only one that did their best to keep Steven out of harms way! And I might not have done the best of jobs, but at least I tried!”

“Oh, that’s just rich coming from you! You’re one of the most reckless gems I’ve ever met!” Pearl spat out while Garnet stood right next to her, seemingly ready to fight. Amethyst noticed this and began to crack her non-existent knuckles.

“Connie, get Greg and your parents and go to a safe place.” Amethyst said in a low tone of voice as she stared down Pearl and Garnet.

“No.” Connie spoke quietly as she climbed up on the couch to grab the hilt, handle, and remnants of Roses Sword from the bookshelf. She gestured to her dad to take Greg and her mom out of the house. “I should have known from the start that Steven was in constant danger, I swore to protect him. It seems like I didn’t do enough. But I’m going to change that right now. I’m right beside you, Amethyst!”

Connie strode over to Amethysts side, revealing the shortened blade of a broken sword. In the following suit of their fellow Crystal Temp leader, Lapis and Peridot walked towards Amethyst. Peridot produced her limb enhancers, painted in green flames, while Lapis pulled water from the sink, creating a set of frozen water wings made of jagged icicles. But before anyone could do anything or move anywhere, something swiftly slithered on the ground in between the two groups. Two large hands wearing white gloves emerged from the ground and pushed the sides further away from each other. And appearing between the two was a cartoonish looking person, wearing a hoodie. Spinel

“You- you know. You guys really are Pink Diamonds friends. or at least you act a lot like her. I mean, the one thing you all have in common was that you forgot about me.” Spinel spoke in a low and depressed tone. “Don’t any of you… remember? The drill? The blast? It’s easy to think that a gem can survive that kind of blast, let alone a diamond. But… what of a human?”

Any form of aggressive emotions that hung in the air before had vanished. Weapons were put away, and everyone took a few steps back.

“So, this is the everyday life of Steven Universe then, huh?” Priyanka asked rhetorically. “One conflict after another, and he was groomed to be the one who had to solve all of the minor squabbles. All of the major conflicts. All because people thought him to be the person he never really was. He was a human being. He’s a gem, but he’s also human too.”

The room remained silent. Garnet and Pearl stood near the temple door, Pearl on the brink of total emotional collapse while Garnet was no longer clenching her fist. Connie, Amethyst, Peridot, and Lapis stood there in silence, staring at one another. Spinel knelt in between the two groups, tears falling silently from her face. Priyanka walked over to the broken kitchen table, turned off the holographic mat, and rolled it up.

“One last funny little thing about us humans though.” Priyanka said softly, wiping away the last few emotional tears from her cheek. “Just because our bones heal doesn’t mean that the memory of breaking them fades away. Steven sacrificed himself, time and again, believing himself to be the hero that you idolized for so long. The person who is no longer around. You wanted him to become that one person you knew a long time ago so much that you nearly wanted him to share the same fate.”

Pearl placed a hand over her mouth as she turned away. Before anyone could say anything else, Priyanka concluded.

“From a psychological point of view, the memories of having his bones broken, the trauma he’s suffered, that’s why his powers are so out of control. His powers are an extension of himself, but magnified. His ability to mend bones and injuries is the scope of how much he cares about other people. It goes beyond a feeling, into the realm of physical healing. But it goes both ways. The pain he’s suffered, the trauma, the anguish, it’s killing him slowly.” Priyanka spoke as she walked over to the seating by the front windowsill. She sat down and stared out at the beach where Jasper sat motionless on the shoreline. “This is something he cannot control because the trauma came from a place, a time, where he had no control over anything. The anger and snapping comes from a place of frustration towards people he had hoped would help him and understand, but had apparently abandoned him emotionally. What we’re seeing, his actions, his emotions, his feelings. They are a mirror of the things he’s been through. A reverberating echo. We’re looking through the eyes of someone who’s seen the worst of it. The most we can do is help him in the same way he would help us.”

The room returned to silence once more. Garnet sat near the doorway into the temple rooms. Pearl and Amethyst began to clean up. The shards of wood from the broken dining room table. Doug and Connie stayed with Greg to help calm him down. Lapis and Peridot took Spinel on a walk, while Jasper sat alone on the beach, staring out into the infinite blue ocean. Moments had passed before the doorway to Rose's room opened up, showing a tired Steven, looking around the room. Everyone who looked equally as emotionally tired as Steven was looking back at him and Obsidian.

“What happened here?” Steven asked, looking around at the broken table, and tired faces.

“Best case scenario: a breakthrough.” Priyanka spoke, still staring out the window and holding onto the rolled-up mat.

Garnet slowly got up, looking down at Steven with sympathetic eyes that no longer remain hidden behind her visor.

“Steven… are you okay?” Garnet asked calmly.

“For the most part… not really. I have an announcement to make though.” Steven spoke before breathing a sigh. “There’s something wrong with my gem. Something might have caused my gem to… reset, in a way. I need to go back to Homeworld.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next Time: Steven, his friends, and his family travel with him to homeworld to get some answers about his gem. But again, he gets more than he had ever bargained for. The Origins of Diamonds.
> 
> This story... yikes. But at the same time, could anyone have blamed Priyanka for going off like a hand grenade on Pearl and Garnet? Apart from wanting people to swear alot (which seemed therapeutic for me), I just feel like some hard truths needed to be said, and i couldn't think of anyone to do it than either Priyanka, or maybe Spinel. But trust me, the next one is going to be pretty heavy.


End file.
